Roy Jones Jr. Aims For July Return, No Opponent Yet

Roy Jones Jr. says his first fight of 2012 will come in the second half of the year, though no date has been set, nor is there a specific person who will be standing across from him in the ring.

“I’ll be back in there about July,” Jones said during an online chat May 4 on ESPN.com. “No opponent yet, though.”

Jones, 43, last fought in December, winning a 10-round unanimous decision over Max Alexander, a former super middleweight and light heavyweight who appeared in the third season of “The Contender” and who now fights at cruiserweight. The victory brought the former four-division world titlist’s record to 55-8 with 40 knockouts.

It was Jones’ first win in more than two years, dating back to his August 2009 technical knockout of Jeff Lacy. Since then, he’d been stopped in one round by Danny Green, lost a unanimous decision in a rematch with Bernard Hopkins, and was knocked out cold by Denis Lebedev.

Jones apparently remains undeterred by those setbacks and the fact that his sole successes now come against limited opposition.

“I will be cruiserweight champion by the end of 2012,” he said in the ESPN.com chat.

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter at twitter.com/fightingwords2 or on Facebook at facebook.com/fightingwordsboxing, or send questions and comments to [email protected]